426 PRICKLY DESERT GRASSES. 



of South Africa, the " Poa Spinosa, " a desert grass 

 with sharp thorns, and about i feet high so sharp, 

 that no animal will graze near it, and no barelegged 

 native will venture in among it. " * Then of the grasses 

 whose seeds are peculiarly troublesome " Pennisetum 

 Distichum " may be cited as a prominent example, its 

 little burr-like seeds are blown about by the wind, 

 and attach themselves to every article of dress so 

 closely " that small tweezers must be carried to pull 

 them off, " f and though it is a valuable forage plant, 

 and the pounded seeds produce a sort of flour much 

 used by the natives, " it is to the traveller his most 

 constant inconvenience. " 



Dr. Barth mentions a tall oat-like grass of luxurious 

 growth " AvenaForskallii," and also " Pannicum Grossu- 

 larium," as among the most valuable of the desert forage 

 grasses,** the seeds of the latter are, however, also 

 a source of annoyance. Then there is the " Pennisetum 

 Typhoidum" which produces millet, a most valuable 

 grain, much used by all natives in the interior of 

 Africa, ff and during the march of the British expedition- 

 ary force across the Bay uda Desert, in January 1885, for 

 the relief of General Gordon at Khartoum, an " almost 

 limitless supply of ' savas" 1 grass, "the best feeding for 

 camels," was at that time obtainable. In fact, so im- 



* Travels in South Africa, by William I. Burchell (Botanist and 

 Naturalist) from 1810 to 1812, published 1822, Vol. i. 



j- Dr. Earth's Travels in Northern Africa, published 1857 8, Vol. 

 i., p. 391. 



Ibid., Vol. i., p. 391. 



** Ibid., Vol. i., pp. 254 284, etc. 



-j"j- Ibid., Vol. i., p. 391, etc. 



From Korti to Khartoum, by Col. Sir Charles Wilson, D.A.G. 

 Nile Expedition, 3rd Edition, pp. 9 II. [The botanical name of this 

 grass does not seem to have been noted]. 



